Samuel Johnson stands as one of the most imposing and fascinating figures in the history of English literature, a man whose physical bulk was matched only by the magnitude of his intellectual achievements and the breadth of his influence on the language itself. Born on September 18, 1709, in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and dying in London on December 13, 1784, Johnson's seventy-five years encompassed a journey from pro…
“Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with too much dejection.”
Neighbourhood:
Augustan Poets, Devotional Poets, Light Verse Poets
Emotional landscape: Irony, Sorrow, Despair
Charles Lamb was born on 10 February 1775 in Crown Office Row, within London’s Inner Temple, and died on 27 December 1834 in Edmonton, then a village north of the city. He became one of the most distinctive voices in English literature not through a vast epic, a celebrated novel, or the public authority of a major poet, but through shorter forms made unexpectedly capacious: familiar essays, literary criticism, letter…
“Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other.”
Neighbourhood:
Light Verse Poets, Love Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Tenderness, Longing
